


Space Cards

by Keolah



Category: Magic: The Gathering, Star Trek
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe, Card Games, Crossover, Gen, Mirror Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-11-14
Updated: 2003-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 23:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/644092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Keolah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A colony trying to develop a card game gets attacked by the Terran Empire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Space Cards

Sunlight poured down over Camilla's eyes, slowly rousing her from her sleep. She groaned and sat up in the grass, rubbing her eyes and stretching. Slowly she stood up, brushing off some bits of dirt from her skin-tight gray bodysuit. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that the last time she'd eaten was last night, so she headed inside toward the mess hall.

"Out sleeping in the grass again, Camilla?" asked Ardys, one of the facility's androids. "Aren't you afraid the sprinkler system will come on and give you an unexpected shower?"

"Nah," Camilla said, walking up toward one of the food dispensers. "They only come on in that section in the evenings." She turned to the wall slot. "Bacon and scrambled eggs, two slices of whole wheat toast with marionberry jam, and a small glass of milk."

The wall panel bleeped a few times, then happily deposited her order in the slot in front of her on a blue plastic tray. Camilla picked up the tray and headed over to the table Ardys was sitting at. Ardys was presently amusing herself with a deck of some sort of cards. Camilla grabbed a spork and began to eat, peering over to see what the android was up to.

"What's that?" Camilla asked, munching on a piece of bacon. "Ugh, the replicator made the bacon soggy again."

"It is a new game for the entertainment facilities," Ardys explained. "It doesn't have a name yet. We're calling it Delta for the moment."

"What happened to Alpha, Beta, and Gamma?" asked Camilla.

"They were found to be inherently flawed before they left the testing stages," the android said. "We've been attempting to come up with a decent card game that is a proper balance of skill and chance, which has been scientifically proven to be the most widely popular and most entertaining type of game in the long run." Ardys placed several of the colorful cards out on the table side by side. "Alpha was too random and not really much of a test of skill, and the winner was generally whoever draw a good card first. Beta had very little of that random factor, and deck construction became more important than playing skill. Gamma was even worse in that respect, being entirely chance that you got any good cards in the first place."

"Really," Camilla drawled, munching on a piece of toast. "And this time?"

"Delta appears to be progressing in a much more satisfactory manner than the previous incarnations," Ardys answered. "Chance is still a major factor, but not as heavily as before. Deck construction and playing skill are the balancing factor. Delta has made it past initial development and is now in open playtesting. Would you like to play a game?"

"Wait, how does it work, first?" Camilla picked up one of the cards and looked over it. On the back was a gold triangle, the Greek symbol for Delta. On the front was, apparently, the card's name, Maintainance Worker. It showed a picture of a man in a maintainance worker's jumpsuit, and said in a box below it, "Activate to repair target machine." Camilla scratched her head in confusion, and put the card down, continuing to eat her meal.

"Well, you put together a deck made up of different cards," Ardys explained. "No more than four of each card in a deck. Then--"

The android's explanation was cut off abruptly by the sound of klaxons sounding throughout the buildling. Camilla stood up with a start, glancing around worriedly. "What's going on, Ardys?"

"The planet is under attack!" Ardys said, raising her voice to the others in the room. "Everyone out. File out calmly into the shelter caverns. This way, follow me."

The android led the civilians out of the mess hall and down to the caverns below the facility. Forgotten in the rush, one deck of Delta cards was left scattered across the table next to the remnants of Camilla's breakfast.

* * *

Soldiers with red-trimmed black uniforms stormed the building, searching for survivors and valuables. The commander, overseeing their progress, went down to the mess hall.

"Commander Elski." A young man came up before him and saluted. "We have searched the building, and it appears to have been evacuated before our arrival."

"Half-eaten meals and cards strewn about," observed the commander. "Clearly they left in a hurry. Search for where they might have gotten off to. They couldn't have gone far."

"Yes, sir." The lieutenant hurried off to carry out his orders.

Commander Elski walked over to the table with the cards and looked down at them. He picked up one of the colorful scraps of paper in his gloved hand and looked it over curiously. With a shrug, he gathered up the cards into their box and shoved it into his belt pouch.

"Commander, we've gained access to the central data core," another officer reported.

"Excellent," Elski said. "Dump the data and take it back to the ship for analysis."

"Yes, sir." She likewise went off to do her duty.

Commander Elski ran his fingers across the table absently, his right hand resting casually on his sidearm. Just in case. Most were smart enough not to directly oppose the Imperial Armada, but the occasional short-lived idiot would try to take potshots at them. No sense in taking any chances about it.

He wandered off toward where the overseer's office should be. He found the room without much difficulty, but also found it sealed up tight. He muttered to himself. They wouldn't have bothered to seal the door if they hadn't been forced to leave something valuable inside.

"Ensign Regas," Elski called down the hall. "Bring me a magnetic disruptor."

"Yes, sir." The ensign went off and brought back the requested device a few minutes later.

Elski nodded to him and took the device, pressing it against door and activating it. After a few minutes, the magnetic seal on the door gave way, releasing the latches and allowing him to shove it open. Wary of a trap, he stood aside as he carefully pulled the door open.

"You go in first, Ensign Regas," he told the young man.

"Yes, sir." Regas cautiously approached the door and poked his head inside. Seeing that he didn't get immediately vaporized, he went inside. He jumped slightly when a light automatically came on, but nothing jumped out and shot him to oblivion.

Commander Elski, seeing that Regas was still alive, came out from behind the wall and looked into the room. There was a desk with a computer terminal, and several potted plants around the room, as well as glass jars containing various colored liquids lining the shelves, some of them having floating moving things inside of them.

"See if you can access the terminal," Elski ordered.

"Yes, sir." Regas went over to the terminal and started punching in key sequences, trying to access it. "It's password protected. I'll try to bypass it."

Elski had a bad feeling about this. He decided that standing over out of view was a prudent move, and put a sturdy piece of metal wall between himself and the office. He found that his paranoia was not unfounded as a sudden explosion shook the building. Flames, blood, and shattered glass flew out of the doorway. Elski swore, tapping his communicator to contact the ship.

"Captain, the main office was booby trapped. We were unable to retrieve the biological data from it."

"Retrieve what you can and return to the ship," the captain's voice emitted from the communications device. "We may be able to acquire sufficient information from the primary database."

"Yes, sir," Elski said, tapping off the communicator. He dared to peek around the corner into the office, but there wasn't much left. The explosion had totalled the terminal, and shattered the jars around the room, even frying most of the potted plants. The charred and bloody remnants of Regas's body were scattered in several pieces across the floor. However, with that trap having been sprung, Elski figured it would have been superfluous for them to have included any further ones. Not that there was anything salvageable anyway.

With a sigh, Elski slid the door closed and headed back outside. One of the shuttles that had brought them down here was sitting in the grass outside the facility. The commander climbed inside and noted the data crystals that had been loaded with information from the main database. He passed the crewmen and told the pilot to take them back to the ship now.

On the way back to the ship, Elski opened his belt pouch and found the deck of cards he had placed in there earlier. He pulled it out and glanced over the mysterious symbols and images as the shuttle sped out of the atmosphere.


End file.
